


(A Cup of) Tea, and Healing

by mar106



Category: League of Legends
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, Long Live Feedback Comment Project, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash, THAT Rivelia trope, anyway, beginning the process of healing from emotional wounds, i am constantly confused by these being separate tags, i guess?, more like, y'know
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-04-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:08:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23799019
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mar106/pseuds/mar106
Summary: Bleeding heavily and weighed down with guilt, Riven stumbles into Irelia's camp and promptly falls unconscious. Upon waking, instead of being met with the tip of a sword, she is met with a cup of tea.
Relationships: Riven/Xan Irelia
Comments: 2
Kudos: 23





	(A Cup of) Tea, and Healing

Irelia had been endlessly patient with Riven since she had stumbled into the Ionian's campsite. After collapsing beside the fire, she had not expected to wake, and if so in chains. Instead, she had woken clean, clothed, and bandaged, and to find a cup of tea being offered to her. To Riven's mind this wasn't the way the world worked. Something was up. The woman - Irelia - _had_ to have some ulterior motive, and after a few days of forced inactivity despite Riven's protestations (apparently due to the state of her wounds), she couldn't take it anymore.

"Why?! Why are you doing this for me?!" Riven shouted. 

"Is it not enough for me to be kind?" Irelia responded.

"No."

"Fine, then." With a sigh, Irelia seemed to deflate, and a tenderness came into her eyes. Sitting down next to the bedroll Riven currently occupied, she said, "It is because I see something of myself in you. Much of my own struggle was done alone, and I do not wish you to have to go through that, as I did. But I also was helped, and continue to be helped, by other people, and I wish to pay their kindness forward in helping you. For one day, you too will help someone else, and so will they, and so will they." The woman's voice lowered to a whisper. "It is in this way we may begin to heal the world."

Riven stared at Irelia, all but open-mouthed. This was too much to take in at once. "But... but... I am a soldier! I destroy! I kill! That's all I know."

"I am also a soldier, but we are only soldiers so long as we are on duty. I hunt and fish to supplement my rations, which are worthy jobs some spend their whole lives doing. Oh, and I make tea." Irelia smiled crookedly at this, but Riven looked ready to object, so she moved quickly on. "And you can always learn. In fact, I can teach you. Ok?"

Riven exhaled shakily, blinking a couple times to stave off tears. "Ok." She didn't know what else to say, truth to tell. She felt a bit as if she had just been run over by a cushiony freight train, and instead of being crushed, she had been picked up and swept along by it, and she couldn't quite bring herself to mind. 

"The first thing I will teach you is how to make a pot of tea."

**Author's Note:**

> I hope y'all Get the significance of tea 'cause I'm not really sure I can properly explain it. I'll try tho.
> 
> So, the act of making and drinking tea throughout the world is ritualized to varying degrees. At the top end are, of course, Japanese, Chinese, and other literal Tea Ceremonies, but even my father's morning cup is, to some degree, a ritual. More of you will understand how rituals are calming, but the thing is that when the rituals are ingrained in a culture the way making & drinking tea is in that of, say, the Brits or the Chinese, it becomes... here is where I'm not quite sure. Communal isn't quite the right word. Nor is social, 'cause it isn't quite like getting coffee with someone. It's a bit more intimate than that, but I suppose it's close enough. Anyway, you can connect with people through these rituals. It's almost like sharing a meal with someone, even though that has its own range of intimacy. (Compare, if you will, eating at the cafeteria with a friend and sharing a home-cooked meal with a family member or SO.) Again, you (hopefully?) get the idea.
> 
> (Yes, I am a nerd, and I'm proud of it goddammit!)
> 
> This story is part of the [LLF Comment Project](https://longlivefeedback.tumblr.com/llfcommentproject), which was created to improve communication between readers and authors. This author invites and appreciates feedback, including:
> 
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